Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny says he’s been in harsher solitary confinement for six months

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(Reuters) – Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday he had been moved to a harsher solitary confinement regime for the next six months, where he would be denied visits.

Navalny, 46, is the most prominent of the few remaining opposition voices in Russia, having gained followers with repeated investigations purporting to show the ruling class had enriched themselves lavishly at the expense of the state.

“I haven’t had any visitors for 8 months and yesterday I was told I would be moved to a cell-type facility for the maximum possible duration of 6 months,” Navalny said via a Twitter thread run by his associates. .

“No visits are allowed there. That means more than a year without a visit. Even maniacs and serial killers with life sentences are allowed a visit, but not me.”

There was no immediate comment on his statement from the Federal Prison Service.

Navalny is being held in the maximum-security IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 250 km (115 miles) east of Moscow, and his supporters say his health has deteriorated significantly after a dozen stints there. ‘isolation.

Nearly 500 doctors last month signed an open letter to President Vladimir Putin demanding that he be allowed to see civilian doctors.

Navalny was arrested two years ago on his way back from Germany to Russia, where he had been treated for poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve toxin after what he and some Western countries have called an attempted attack. assassination of the Russian state. The Kremlin has denied any involvement.

News outlet The Insider, which operates from outside Russia, quoted his lawyer Vadim Kobzev as saying that Navalny had lost 7 kg (15 lbs) in prison and was suffering from stomach pain after receiving “huge doses ” of antibiotics.

“Putin tried to kill Navalny quickly,” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh tweeted. “Now he is slowly killing him and torturing him.”

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A Russian prison guard said two weeks ago that Navalny’s health was not in danger, while the Kremlin dismissed accusations of state involvement in his poisoning and called him an extremist dangerous.

The lawyer-turned-activist was sentenced to a combined 11½ years in prison in two separate fraud cases, which he claims were fabricated to silence him, and his anti-corruption organization was banned as an extremist.

The “Navalny” documentary about his poisoning and recovery was nominated for best documentary film at this year’s Oscars.

(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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